The Daily Lard 12-13-11

Douglas LeeDec 13, 2011 7:30 AM

Good Morning, Broncos fans! In reviewing Sunday's win for PFF, Trey Cunningham says it appears Tim Tebow "is continuing to mature as an NFL quarterback," and he says Tim's TD pass to Demaryius Thomas was an impressive play (it was, especially since Tebow was moving to his right at the time of the throw). He also points out that it was Tebow's first second multi-turnover game of the season, not necessarily a huge mark against him considering the Bears' penchant for taking the ball away.

As for the O-line, only Zane Beadles came away with a positive score in pass protection, and as Cunningham states, if not for Tebow's athleticism he likely would have been hit more and sacked more than the five times he was. Oh yeah, and of course there's praise for the defense, especially Von Miller and Brodrick Bunkley.

Broncos

Notes from the DP: the availability of Andre' Goodman and David Bruton against the Pats is very much in doubt, while Demaryius Thomas says he short-armed the missed deep pass on Sunday.

Jeff Legwold points out that Denver is suddenly, if not hilariously, the most stable organization in the AFC West right now.

Mike Klis revisits each of the Broncos' wild victories on their 7-1 run with Tebow.

Partial transcripts of John Elway's weekly appearance with Vic & Gary from SRI and the DP.

Tim Tebow

Ryan Wilson says "it's clear that Tebow is evolving into a legitimate NFL passer" in his weekly Tracking Tebow column, calling him "A proper quarterback, who reads defenses, manipulates coverages, and gets the ball out accurately and on time."

PFW's Hub Arkush is flat-out disgusted by talk of divine intervention and of Tebow's winning ways being beyond comprehension, and he thinks Tebow and Caleb Hanie "set NFL quarterbacking back half a century" on Sunday.

As Brian Burke details, Tebow has been consistently poor in the first three quarters of games, but he's been electric in the fourth quarter. So, what gives? Is Tim too anxious before that, or is the defense playing him differently late, or both?

Over at Deadspin, Josh Levin says Tebow is better than fiction, while Tom Scocca sees a lot of Kordell Stewart in Tebow and reminds us that there have been plenty of "briefly unbeatable" guys in NFL history, including John Skelton in Arizona right now.

Handshake Haley

Adam Teicher details the firing of Haley, who will be replaced on an interim basis by Romeo Crennel. Crennel, Kirk Ferentz, Josh McDaniels and Jeff Fisher are seen as potential candidates for the job next season.

Haley was reportedly thinking of resigning before he was fired, as his relationship with GM Scott Pioli had begun deteriorating as early as last year.

The NFL and NFLPA are looking into the Browns' haphazard handling of Colt McCoy's concussion. Naturally, James Harrison doesn't think he deserves any punishment for delivering the hit, and Mike Freeman would like to see opposing players take a public stance to discourage Harrison's dirty style of play.

Gee, Hue Jackson says the Raiders aren't giving up just yet, while Bill Romanowski is crazy and sees Oakland as a bunch of bacon shoppers.

Agree Tebow is getting to much credit for the comebacks. The team as a whole has been world beaters the last half of the 4th quarter of games. How much of that is Tebow&#8217s ability to finish effect on the psychology of the team? I don&#8217t know. But really, it is Denver as a team that has came on at the end of the game. After all these years of no personality, Denver finally has a personality, that of playing 60 minutes of a game.

Posted by sleepyteak on 2011-12-13 19:46:56

@schmendrick (#23): I think Klis was being facetious because of the people who insist it&#8217s Tebow who &#8220just wins&#8221, without giving due credit to the incredible defense that is making it possible for him to &#8220just win&#8221. But without those two defensive plays (the first one in particular), Denver would not have made it to overtime, or had the opportunity to win once in overtime.

Posted by CompUser on 2011-12-13 18:16:27

Everyone should read Ryan Wilson&#8217s analysis of Tim Tebow&#8217s play against Chicago, then to put things into perspective, pull up his analysis of Tebow&#8217s play against Miami.

Unfortunately, I think New England&#8217s offensive strengths match up well with Denver&#8217s defensive weak spots.

Best thing for Denver to do is to keep doing the same thing - run the ball as much as possible to reduce New England&#8217s scoring opportunites and to keep the Bronco defense rested. If Denver tries to air it out at the beggining of the game this will be a NE blowout.

Posted by Alan_Smithee on 2011-12-13 17:48:00

Not sure about Skelton comparison&#8212he had a good day vs 49ers but was utterly horrible just a 2-3 weeks ago against same team and Cardinals generally really have missed Kolb when he&#8217s been out. Not sure I get that analogy at all but yes, Tebow could be another Kordell Stewart. I am doubting it but it&#8217s possible&#8212we&#8217ll know more in a couple of years. I do think Tebow already reads defenses better than Stewart ever did.

Also I don&#8217t really care, but Hub Arkush (really, that&#8217s a name?) clearly hasn&#8217t watched a lot of other games even this season, if he wants to go to there. Hasn&#8217t seen much of Blaine Gabbert, Colt McCoy or the Redskins&#8217 carousel of crap, to make a statement like that. But &#123shrug&#125 Hyperbole is fun!

As for the Patriots, Gronkowski is the biggest worry in that game, especially if either Dawkins (I think he&#8217ll play) or Goodman are out. Not just covering him, tackling him is one of the biggest issues, he&#8217s tough to bring down, so they need all hands on deck or it could be ugly.

Oh and I liked the &#8220whacked&#8221 reference, Doug. <img alt="wink" height="19" src="http://www.singernet.com/images/smileys/wink.gif" style="border:0;" width="19"> I think his last game should have ended with a fade to black before we knew if he was canned or not.

Posted by underdog on 2011-12-13 17:05:04

Really weird sentence from Klis:

&#8220After Tebow got the Broncos close with a TD pass to Thomas, he got Bears running back Marion Barber IIIâ to stop the clock by running out of bounds, he got Barber to fumble in overtime and he got field goals of 59 yards by Prater to tie it and 51 yards in overtime to win it.&#8221

TEBOW got Barber to run out of bounds? TEBOW got Barber to fumble?

I like Tebow a lot, but good grief, Klis!

(And if Klis just meant &#8220got&#8221 like received, he should have said Tebow got Barber &#8220stopping&#8221 the clock and &#8220fumbling&#8221 the ball.) /grammar police

Also, I&#8217m with everybody else here. I never dreamed the Broncos would be competitive with NE. I still think they&#8217ll probably lose, but I actually am sipping some of the Koolaid, and see how there are some plausible paths to victory for the men in orange. Go Broncos!

Posted by schmendrick on 2011-12-13 16:56:18

Man I hope that Miller and Dumervil knock the crap out of that prima-donna Brady. Hopefully someone like Mays flies out of bounds in pursuit and knocks Belichik to the turf, too.

Beat the crap out of these two guys. Yes, I will say I&#8217ll applaud if Brady&#8217s knocked out for the season by Doom or Von.

Posted by jtomasik on 2011-12-13 16:49:36

NE has scored 30+ in 4 straight games and their season low is 17 in Pittsburg. The D is not keeping the Broncos in the game this time. I&#8217m excited about the game but I&#8217m not expecting a win. A win would be amazing but a loss would not hurt too bad as long as it&#8217s not too ugly.

Posted by ohiobronco on 2011-12-13 16:45:57

I was just thinking of the difficulty the coaches that were hired in 09 had. First the 09 draft has so far been unspectacular. Second the 2010 available FA were all 30 or over. Third there was no preseason for 2011. If a coach needed to overhaul a roster and bring in his own guys, he picked a bad time to do that.

Posted by sleepyteak on 2011-12-13 16:26:43

I expect NE will come out with their hurry-up offense and attack our depleted secondary. Who is going to cover Gronk well and Hernandez and Welker? I think they will run a little (and then later in the game when they are up by a few TD&#8217s), but they love to throw and Brady is very good against the blitz.

The NE D is pretty bad, we should be able to move the ball against them. Let me say this, if we can&#8217t score until the 3rd or 4th quarter against this defense our offense is pretty hopeless.

I can&#8217t see this one becoming another 13-10 or 16-13 affair.

I just can&#8217t see the Broncos winning this game, but I thought we would lose to NE in 09 and we won that one (in OT no less).

So I&#8217m saying there&#8217s a chance&#8230

Go Broncos!

-Rob

Posted by RavingRob on 2011-12-13 16:10:28

The Rocket Toss is pretty cool. For a play-set you run maybe 4 times, you can do an insane amount out of it. Would open up some really weird play-action passing lanes, too.

As for beating New England, it really comes down to how NE wants to play. NE&#8217s best idea is to probably get into a track meet, but they could also opt to run the ball heavily. The risk of Denver keeping the NE Defense on the field for 20 of 30 First Half minutes is a very big concern for NE. If they D can be brutalized that way in the first half, Denver&#8217s Offense can impose itself in the 2nd half.

So, look for NE to attempt to get out to a 14 point lead by hook or crook, then start running it a lot.

But, the game will come down to who has the ball last, really.

As for &#8220Why does Tebow play better at the end of the game?&#8221. It&#8217s far easier than people make out the question to be: The Hurry Up offense, in the 2 minute drill, is pretty much what Tebow ran at Florida, minus the Option plays. You spread it out, you go fast and you pick apart the Defense. So the Hurry Up Offense plays into every strength Tebow has, limits his weaknesses (at current), and makes his running ability play havoc with the Defense&#8217s mind. Oh, and they&#8217re also dead tired from chasing after the Broncos. (Remember, Belichick went to Florida to learn the Spread)

Shorter: Tebow is the second coming of Jim Kelly, who happens to train with Bruce Smith. He was made to eat up defense late in the game.

Posted by OutInOregon on 2011-12-13 15:56:34

I&#8217m pretty sure that Tom Brady misplaced his man card somewhere around the time that he showed up on the sidelines of an NFL football game looking like Justin Bieber.

Posted by Jason Chestnut "Broncos Bassis on 2011-12-13 15:47:06

I hope Goody and Dawk are better by Sunday, that could be an issue, though I have to admit, I am quite comfortable with Harris. Not like we have anyone who can cover Gronk anyway&#8230

@magster: agreed. It seems to me the best way to take him out of action would be not giving Brady time to get the ball to him.

It feels like FOREVER since we were in any real playoff conversation, feels good!

Posted by RalphW on 2011-12-13 15:32:16

I wish Atwater was hall worthy. He&#8217s ring of fame worthy though and that&#8217s enough for me.

I think Randy Gradishar should be in the hall. He deserves it. In the golden age of Linebackers, he was on par with the Lamberts and the Hamms of the League. He just played in Denver.

Unfortunately, Rod, Atwater, and Meck won&#8217t sniff the Hall. If Cris Carter&#8217s not in, then there&#8217s no way Rod makes it. I think the hall recognizes that Monk shouldn&#8217t have gotten in. WRs should get in based on greatness. Not being good for a time. They need to be GREAT for a time.

I think the biggest argument is around TD. He has one of the top 5 - at least- yards per carry numbers in postseason history. He had gaudy stats for 3 seasons. He had 2k yards. He was a league MVP and SB MVP. His career length measures up to Gayle Sayers&#8217 pretty well even though he crushes Sayers in tds, yards, attempts and is just .4 behind Sayers in career ypc (4.6 to 5.0). Sayers had less than 1000 rushes. Davis had almost 1700 and maintained his TD/cary and ypc carry #s. Of all Rbs with more than 1 SB appearance, TD has the most yards/game. He also has the record for most rush TDs in a single Super Bowl w/ 3.

I can&#8217t find all-time NFL postseason stats anywhere. If you can, let me know. But I think that TD&#8217s most compelling hall argument lies in those numbers. He&#8217s arguably one of the best postseason RBs in NFL history. Up there w/ Emmett Smith.

Can you hold a career-ending knee injury against a player? If yes, he&#8217s out, if no, maybe he&#8217s in.

Posted by super7 on 2011-12-13 15:29:54

That Rocket Toss sweep looks slightly like the reverse we did with DT vs Bears. I like how it would get him in more open spaces, nice catch on it Doug. Maybe Ted will incorporate in some of the game plans.

I think part of the answers as to why late heroics are Tebow&#8217s forte is that:

a) he is one of the best conditioned athletes (he always seems to get away when needed and when he didn&#8217t earlier in the game - see Urlacher half-tackle on Tebow&#8217s run to set up game-winning FG). Its like he&#8217s got a reserve gas tank while others don&#8217t

b) the chaos puts defenses on their heels allowing Tebow to be the aggressor

Whatever the reasons, it&#8217s awesome.

I expect a lot of ball control on offense and lots of blitzing by DA and the D.

Posted by Orange and Blue on 2011-12-13 15:24:32

&#8220Hmmm&#8221 indeed, Doug. That Rocket Toss Sweep article is VERY interesting. Although, methinks that Denver needs a bit more talent infusion at RB (and O-line, and WR&#8230but mostly at RB) to make some of these concepts really go.

I&#8217m excited for a potential post-season AND the draft&#8230good times!

Posted by DiscoStu on 2011-12-13 15:12:33

Don&#8217t see how we beat Brady with Goodman and Dawkins out and using 3 rookie DBs against Welker, Gronkowski et al. unless Von-Doom combine for numerous sacks and QB hurries.

Posted by magster on 2011-12-13 15:05:13

Can&#8217t argue against high end hookers and such

Posted by diviesti on 2011-12-13 14:53:50

The PFW and Deadspin articles point out numerous examples of improbable runs by teams and young QBs that were not sustained. So sure Tebow has shown enough to coach him up over the offseason and see what happens, that doesn&#8217t mean you can ignore other potential options though.

Posted by ohiobronco on 2011-12-13 14:47:43

It is perfectly manly to wear Uggs if they are paying you as much as they are paying Brady. Particularly if the proceeds are used for high end hookers and such.

Posted by ohiobronco on 2011-12-13 14:36:36

I&#8217ve got nothing against Tom Brady, but&#8230

He should have his man card revolked for wearing Uggs. I&#8217m just saying.

If you don&#8217t know what Ugg&#8217s are, your man card is definitely safe.

Posted by Alan_Smithee on 2011-12-13 14:31:25

Interesting reading on Brady and his outburst. I&#8217d love to see Von and crew give him a hell of a time this week, not only because a good win over the much-praised Pats would silence half of the blowhards out there and show how much the streak has been a team effort, but also because I just don&#8217t like the guy that much anymore.

Posted by laosuan on 2011-12-13 14:07:44

hcubed, of course you&#8217re right. Tebow turned it over twice against Detroit, with both plays ending up Lions TDs. Thanks for catching that.

Posted by Douglas Lee on 2011-12-13 13:54:27

Great Lard today. Thanks Doug.

Posted by Boydy2669 on 2011-12-13 13:53:18

I will admit that it&#8217s nice to have all the Broncos coverage in the national media instead of the usual all NFC East all the time.

So everyone is now acknowledging that Tebow is showing signs of progress. This sort of goes against the Tebow devotees&#8217 narrative that the world is against him and he&#8217s not getting a fair shake.

Posted by ohiobronco on 2011-12-13 13:39:17

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn&#8217t Tebow have a multi-turnover game against the Lions? Which means this wasn&#8217t his first. Or did I read that sentence wrong?

Posted by hcubed on 2011-12-13 13:28:29

Steve Atwater deserves to be in the Hall alongside Terrell Davis.

Posted by Jason Chestnut "Broncos Bassis on 2011-12-13 13:05:09

Looks to me that the Bears defensive play changed late in the game, which allowed receivers to be more open. This isn&#8217t a knock on Tebow, it&#8217s just an observation.